a day after his election. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. let the negotiations begin. house and senate leaders have now staked out their opening positions. now the president will put down his markers. we're only moments from his scheduled first post-election speech at the white house addressing the most urgent crisis of the lame-duck session, the fiscal cliff. without a deal, the congressional budget office now projects that if the tax cuts expire and the budget cuts kick in, unemployment would jump to 9.1% by the end of next year and the nation's economy could slide into another recession. joining me for our daily fix, special panel, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com, mark halperin, senior political analyst for "time" and msnbc. >> greg, u.s. economics editor for the economist and "new york times" andrew ross sorkin, co-host of "squawk box" on cnbc. welcome all. first chris cizilla and mark halperin, the political side of this, chris, your reporting so far, we've seen speaker boehner today, what chuck schumer had to say, the pr